Editing Immigration to Australia (section)

=== Gold rush and population growth ===
{{Main|Australian gold rush}}
[[File:StateLibQld 1 110096 Drawing of migrants disembarking from a ship, ca. 1885.jpg|thumb|Migrants disembarking from a ship, {{Circa|1885}}]]
[[File:Southern Cross - call to British.jpg|thumb|right|250px|alt=Immigration poster|[[Australian Government]] poster issued by the Overseas Settlement Office to attract immigrants (1928).]]

The [[Australian gold rushes|Gold Rush era]], beginning in 1851, led to an enormous expansion in population, including large numbers of British and Irish settlers, followed by smaller numbers of Germans, other Europeans, and [[Overseas Chinese|Chinese]]. This latter group was subject to increasing restrictions and discrimination, making it impossible for many to remain in the country. With the federation of the Australian colonies into a single nation, one of the first acts of the new Commonwealth Government was the [[Immigration Restriction Act 1901]], otherwise known as the [[White Australia policy]], which was a strengthening and unification of disparate colonial policies designed to restrict non-White settlement. Because of opposition from the British government, an explicit racial policy was avoided in the legislation, with the control mechanism being a dictation test in a European language selected by the immigration officer. This was selected to be one the immigrant did not know; the last time an immigrant passed a test was in 1909. Perhaps the most celebrated case was [[Egon Erwin Kisch]], a left-wing Czechoslovak journalist who could speak five languages, who was failed in a test in Scottish Gaelic and deported as illiterate.

The government also found that if it wanted immigrants, it had to subsidise migration. The great distance from Europe made Australia a more expensive and less attractive destination than Canada and the United States. The number of immigrants needed during different stages of the economic cycle could be controlled by varying the subsidy. Before [[Federation of Australia|Federation in 1901]], assisted migrants received passage assistance from colonial government funds. The British government paid for the passage of convicts, paupers, the military, and civil servants. Few immigrants received colonial government assistance before 1831.<ref name="Price">{{cite book |last=Price |first=Charles |title=Australians: Historical Statistics |publisher=Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates |year=1987 |isbn=0-949288-29-2 |editor=Wray Vamplew |location=Broadway, New South Wales, Australia |pages=2–22 |chapter=Chapter 1: Immigration and Ethnic Origin}}</ref> However, young women were receiving assisted passages from state governments to migrate to Australia in the early years of Federation.<ref>{{Cite Q|Q118696098}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!Period!!Annual average assisted immigrants<ref name = Price/>
|-
| 1831–1860 || 18,268
|-
| 1861–1900 || 10,087
|-
| 1901–1940 || 10,662
|-
| 1941–1980 || 52,960
|}

With the onset of the [[Great Depression]], the Governor-General proclaimed the cessation of immigration until further notice. The next group to arrive were 5,000 Jewish refugee families from Germany in 1938. Approved groups such as these were assured of entry by being issued a Certificate of Exemption from the Dictation Test.